N.Y. Rolls Out Welcome Mat For Telematics

For insurers looking to leverage telematics-powered usage-based insurance, developing the product can be seen as the easy part. More difficult is getting those products in front of consumers. The state-based insurance regulatory system in the U.S. insurance marketplace can be daunting when it comes to new product introductions.

But at least one state is publicly professing its desire to make usage-based insurance a reality. At yesterday's P&C Joint Industry Forum at Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria hotel, Robert Easton, executive deputy superintendent of the insurance division in New York's Department of Financial Services, said the state is "bullish on usage-based insurance."

"We've been reaching out to companies inviting filings," Easton says. "The governor (Andrew Cuomo) in particular is very big on preventing distracted driving."

The idea, Easton explains, is that telematics programs can come with technology that helps mitigate distracted driving. Governor Cuomo issued a statement supporting Esurance's DriveSafe program late last year.

In addition to UBI, New York insurance regulators are following closely how companies are adopting to new enterprise risk management rules and reporting requirements, Easton says. The state also hopes that the Terrorist Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) is renewed soon though "we realize this is more than a New York issue," Easton said.

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio

I am not one of those people, I never allow my smart phone to track where I am like it's always asking me too. Didn't you people see Terminator 2? The computers will one day soon fight back against us.

One of the benefits explained to me is that insurers cans see your usual routes and over time start to make suggestions about, for example, getting to work faster with an alternative route, or warnings about traffic, etc. With that kind of trade off, go ahead, follow me all you like.

True - people are constantly telling companies where they are via cellphones. I can understand the privacy concerns associated with telematics but also think that the benefits of outweigh the risk consumers associate with sharing their information with insurers.

That depends on who's using the data and for what. If it's the "following" consumers are worried about, they should know cell phones do a pretty good job of creating a digital trail for a person as it is (every time it pings a tower, for example.) Insurers are less interested in the where (I mean, they can make a pretty good guess where you're driving the most based on the address on your policy) as much as the how and when.